


God Help You If You Are A Phoenix

by Thistlerose



Category: Star Trek (2009)
Genre: Female Friendship, Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-16
Updated: 2010-06-16
Packaged: 2017-10-10 03:53:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/95183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thistlerose/pseuds/Thistlerose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gaila had no idea Nyota had been reassigned to the <i>Enterprise</i>.  She thought she'd died on the <i>Farragut</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	God Help You If You Are A Phoenix

When Gaila glimpsed Nyota in the _Enterprise_'s crowded galley, she almost did nothing. She was so tired – having spent the past twenty-odd hours trying to get the ship's damaged computers back on-line – and she was so used to seeing Nyota outside their dorm at some point during her day, whether it was in the corridors between classes or on the track at the gym. For a few moments, the sight of her simply didn't register.

Figuring they'd catch up later, Gaila turned away and was about to leave, coffee cup cradled between her hands. Then something clicked, and she spun about, knocking into the crewman who'd been walking behind her, and spilling her hot coffee all over his shirtfront.

"Ow, for fuck's sake!" he snapped.

"I'm sorry!" Truly chagrined – for wasting the coffee as well as burning a co-worker – Gaila dabbed ineffectually at him with the cuff of her sleeve.

"Stop, you're not helping, it's—" Then his tone softened. "Hey, never mind, it's all right. Accidents happen."

Gaila glanced up.

The crewman – someone from the sciences, whose face she didn't recognize – gave her a soppy grin. "So," he said, capturing one of her hands and stroking her fingers, "I take it you're off-duty now?"

Great, she thought. In addition to everything else, she'd forgotten to take her pheromone suppressant. "Sorry!" she said brightly as she wriggled free. "Busy!"

She left him staring after her, and ran to the spot where she'd seen Nyota, half-expecting her to have vanished, since that was what ghosts did. But no, she was still sitting there, her shoulders drooping as she chewed morosely on a protein bar. She looked up when Gaila drew near, and offered her a faint smile. "Oh, hi, G—"

The rest was cut off as Gaila threw her arms around her and hugged her rib-crushingly tight. "It's you," Gaila gasped. "You're really here. You're alive! I thought—" Her eyes burned and she squeezed them shut because she'd promised herself years ago that she wasn't going to cry over anyone, not ever again. But this was different. This wasn't about people hurting her simply because they could, or about loneliness. This was about relief so intense that it needed an outlet. She blinked, and the tears caught in her lashes, blurring her vision. A few dripped down her cheeks and landed on her lips. She licked them away and sighed deeply into Nyota's hair.

"Gaila?" She didn't sound annoyed, only a little bewildered. Her slender hands patted Gaila reassuringly on the shoulders. "Of course I'm alive. Who told you I was—?"

"I thought you were dead," Gaila breathed. "I thought you were on the _Farragut_."

"Oh, my God." Now Nyota was squeezing her back, her warm cheek pressed close to Gaila's. "No. There was a mistake. I was supposed to be assigned to the _Enterprise,_ but there was—"

"I thought I lost you. And I just can't afford to lose you. I know we don't always get along, but you're my friend and I love you." Those last three words just tumbled out of her, completely without artifice. They startled her; she'd never said them to another woman, or to someone who was just a friend, no benefits. The concept of female friendship was still rather new to Gaila. The idea that other women – Orion or otherwise – were competition, the enemy, was deeply ingrained in her culture and it had taken her a long time to understand that it didn't have to be true.

When Nyota didn't respond right away, Gaila's stomach clenched. "I'm sorry," she began. "I guess that was a weird thing to say. I didn't mean…"

But then Nyota pulled back slightly, and Gaila saw the tears in her lovely, tired eyes. She sniffled wetly, then smiled. "Don't apologize. I'm sorry, I… I'm just so worn out, I'm not processing things quickly. I've been on the bridge since right before we arrived at Vulcan. But I love you too."

It was like being bundled in a warm blanket. Gaila beamed. Then – "Wait, you were on the bridge?"

"Um, yeah," said Nyota.

"Wow!"

"Well, they needed someone who could distinguish Romulan from Vulcan. The communications officer on duty wasn't sure he could, so I—"

"That's so incredible!"

"Yeah," Nyota said slowly, as if that fact had just dawned on her as well. Her nose scrunched cutely as her smile widened. "It is, isn't it?"

"So, you were there when Jim – when Kirk, I mean – took control of the ship? How did that even happen? I only heard the announcement over the intercom. By the way," she went on breathlessly, "I'm sorry for bringing him back to our room. I know I promised, but he was _so_ cute, and I thought you were going to be gone all night, so—"

"It's okay," Nyota laughed. "If you hadn't broken our rule, he wouldn't have overheard me talking about that Klingon distress call, and … we'd all be dead."

"_Reeeeeally?_"

"Don't sound so smug."

"Let me get this straight: if I hadn't made out with Kirk, we'd all have been killed?"

"And the Earth would probably have been destroyed, yeah."

"Huh."

They sat together in silence for a little while. Gaila was thinking about chains of events, how strange the individual links sometimes were, and how they were often so much longer than they first seemed. She said, "So you were on the bridge when Vulcan was destroyed. Do you know – did Commander Spock still have family there?"

Nyota's smile fell. "Yes, he did."

"Oh." A chill swept over Gaila. "Do you – no, you probably wouldn't know. I wonder if any of them made it off the planet in time."

"His father did," Nyota said in a quiet voice. "His mother didn't."

"Oh."

Nyota touched her hand. "Come on," she said, "let's find someplace where we can really sit and talk. I'll tell you everything."

Something about the way she said _everything_ caught at Gaila. As they rose and started to leave the galley, she said, "Let's stick close together, okay? I mean, even when we get back to Earth. I don't know what will happen – nobody seems to know – but I want us to stick together." The words sounded bizarrely innocent to her ear, and she flushed slightly.

Nyota found her hand again and squeezed it.

1/29/10


End file.
